Phil Metzger has a PhD in physics from the University of Central Florida. In 2014 he took early retirement from NASA where he was on the Space Shuttle launch team, helped assemble and test the International Space Station, and co-founded the Kennedy Space Center Swamp Works, a laboratory that develops technology to mine and utilize space resources. In 2011 he was presented the astronauts' Silver Snoopy award and was named the Kennedy Space Center's Scientist/Engineer of the Year. He is now with the planetary science faculty at the University of Central Florida where he studies the surface material of the Moon, Mars, and asteroids and develops technologies for space mining and planetary surface construction. He and his wife Gigi and their four children live in Orlando, Florida.